The advent of so-called ad hoc networks, including many personal-area networks (PANs), has led to the concept of a “scatter” type of operation. This refers to a situation in which a given node may simultaneously act as a slave node on one or more sub-networks, and possibly also as a master node on a sub-network. In other words, the node is simultaneously a participant on at least two sub-networks. Meanwhile, for example, to maintain low cost of devices, such a node may not have sufficient communications resources to simultaneously communicate on all of the links on which it is a node.